The Up Series

Friends Al & Colleen had been trying to tell Ward & I about The Up Series for months. But in the oft-interrupted snatches of time we have had together...well we just weren't able to complete the conversation.

A couple of weeks ago Colleen gave me the collection of 6 DVDs at the afternoon school bus stop. Last night we finally started watching. The premise is the Jesuit maxim "Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man." In 1964 the series began with interviews with 14 seven-year-old children from diverse backgrounds from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. These have been continued every seven years since. The last, "49 Up" was released in the US last fall.

Ward wasn't completely invested in them, and I was mildly curious when we put the first DVD in around 8 last night. We were so quickly drawn in, that we watched almost all of the next two episodes, until after 11:30 when we dragged ourselves to bed.

I had to promise him that I wouldn't watch any more without him!

Anyway, these are just great. My mom would have loved them, too. Especially traditionalist John.

Here are some reviews that provide a much better summary than I could.


http://www.reelviews.net/movies/u/up.html

http://www.slate.com/id/2175653/